BitDefender bug bites GFI

Email wipe-out

Common Topics

GFI's Mail Security anti-virus product threw a wobbler Wednesday afternoon (2 March) when an update to BitDefender Engine Module caused it to delete the body content of every incoming and outgoing message. The engine - one of three used by GFI MailSecurity along with components from Kaspersky Labs and McAfee - detected all emails as corrupted zip files.

The problem was resolved in 90 minutes after BitDefender rolled back to a previous version of its signature definition files. But the impact on those users affected was severe. "We lost the content of hundreds of messages," one Reg reader writes. You can read comments from GFI's users on its forums here. GFI has apologised for any inconvenience.

A spokesman for BitDefender said the glitch only affected its integration with GFI. BitDefender's technology is bundled by a number of other smaller security firms such as Buhldata in Germany and Hauri in Korea. Users of these integrated products - along with those who use BitDefender's product alone - remain unaffected by the glitch. BitDefender said it was investigating the cause of the problem, the first such glitch to befall the Romanian developer’s 18 month integration with Malta-based GFI. BitDefender said it planned to implement a testing module for integration, alongside its existing testing regime, in order to detect possible future problems before updates go live. ®